New Patient Registration
If you live within our practice area (you can check in the post code checker above) you are welcome to register with us and our reception staff will be happy to guide you through the procedure.
We sometimes may need to confirm your address, and in this case we may require proof by way of a recent utility bill along with one form of photographic ID.
All new patients are offered a health check with a member of the healthcare team to ensure that any required tests are up to date and that we have an accurate note of any repeat medication you may be taking.
Medical treatment is available from the date of registration. Please contact reception for further information.
You will need to complete a registration form (GMS1) and a New Patient Questionnaire which will provide useful information whilst we wait for your medical records to arrive from your previous doctor. You can download these from below.
If you live within our practice area (you can check in the post code checker above) you are welcome to register with us and our reception staff will be happy to guide you through the procedure.
We sometimes may need to confirm your address, and in this case we may require proof by way of a recent utility bill along with one form of photographic ID.
All new patients are offered a health check with a member of the healthcare team to ensure that any required tests are up to date and that we have an accurate note of any repeat medication you may be taking.
Medical treatment is available from the date of registration. Please contact reception for further information.
You will need to complete a registration form (GMS1) and a New Patient Questionnaire which will provide useful information whilst we wait for your medical records to arrive from your previous doctor. You can download these from below.
Temporary Patient Registration
If you are ill while away from home or if you are not registered with a doctor but need to see one you can receive emergency treatment from the local GP practice for 16 days. After 16 days you will need to register as a temporary or permanent patient.
You can be registered as a temporary patient for up to three months. This will allow you to be on the local practice list and still remain a patient of your permanent GP. After three months you will have to re-register as a temporary patient or permanently register with that practice.
To register as a temporary patient simply contact the local practice you wish to use. Practices do not have to accept you as a temporary patient although they do have an obligation to offer emergency treatment. You cannot register as a temporary patient at a practice in the town or area where you are already registered.
Out of Area Patient Registration Information
New arrangements introduced from January 2015 give people greater choice when choosing a GP practice. Patients may approach any GP practice, even if they live outside the practice area, to see if they will be accepted on to the patient list.
The new arrangements mean GP practices now have the option to register patients who live outside the practice area but without any obligation to provide home visits.
Out of area registration (with or without home visits) is voluntary for GP practices meaning patients may be refused because they live out of area.
If your application is considered the GP practice will only register you without home visits if it is clinically appropriate and practical in your individual case.
When is it clinically appropriate and practical to register out of area patients without home visits?
When a patient approaches the GP practice to apply to register as an out of area patient and the practice wishes to consider their registration without an obligation to provide home visits it will need to decide whether it is clinically appropriate and practical for the individual patient.
While it is for the practice to form this opinion based on the individual circumstances of the patient, practices will want to consider, for example, if:
If the practice decides it is not clinically appropriate or practical for the patient to be registered away from home it will give its reasons for this. There is no right of appeal for the patient against the decision (they may, however, make a complaint through the NHS complaints system as for any other decision). The practice must be able to give reasons as to why registration was declined. Given the limitations of this type of registration, it is not discriminatory to advise a patient is unsuitable for registration on clinical grounds. The practice remains free to offer registration in a usual way, as to any other patient i.e. with duty to provide home visits etc. but is not obliged to do so.
In order to decide the clinical appropriateness and practicality of the individual patient application we may:-
Ask you or the practice you are currently / was registered with (with your consent) questions about your health to help decide whether to register you in this way
Ask you questions about why it is practical for you to attend this practice (for example, how many days during the week you would normally be able to attend)
If accepted, you will attend the practice and receive the full range of services provided as normal at the surgery. If you have an urgent care need and the surgery cannot help you at home we will ask you to call NHS 111 and they will put you in touch with a local service (this may be a face to face appointment with a local healthcare professional or a home visit where necessary).
We may decide however, that it is not in your best interests or practical for you to be registered in this way. In these circumstances we may offer you registration with home visits, for example, if you live just outside the practice area, or we may not register you and advise you should seek to register (or remain registered) with a more local practice.
If accepted but your health needs change we may review your registration to see if it would be more appropriate for you to be registered with a GP practice closer to your home.
This new arrangement only applies to GP practices and patients who live in England. For further information visit the NHS Choices website (www.nhs.uk)
How do I register as an Out of Area Patient?
Please visit the practice and ask one of our reception team that you would like to register as an “out of area patient”, our team will provide you with the necessary paperwork.
New arrangements introduced from January 2015 give people greater choice when choosing a GP practice. Patients may approach any GP practice, even if they live outside the practice area, to see if they will be accepted on to the patient list.
The new arrangements mean GP practices now have the option to register patients who live outside the practice area but without any obligation to provide home visits.
Out of area registration (with or without home visits) is voluntary for GP practices meaning patients may be refused because they live out of area.
If your application is considered the GP practice will only register you without home visits if it is clinically appropriate and practical in your individual case.
When is it clinically appropriate and practical to register out of area patients without home visits?
When a patient approaches the GP practice to apply to register as an out of area patient and the practice wishes to consider their registration without an obligation to provide home visits it will need to decide whether it is clinically appropriate and practical for the individual patient.
While it is for the practice to form this opinion based on the individual circumstances of the patient, practices will want to consider, for example, if:
- There are clinical conditions or care needs which mean registration without the ability to do home visits would compromise clinical care, and the patient’s needs would be better met through registration with a practice near to where they live. (For example, the patient does not have any complex long-term conditions that mean they are receiving a package of home-based care or community-based support which would be difficult for the practice to coordinate remotely; or, the patient relies on frequent home visits from their current GP practice.)
- There are practical reasons which mean the patient is unlikely to benefit from out of area registration with the practice (for example, the patient is not spending frequent periods of time in or near the practice area where they wish to register.)
If the practice decides it is not clinically appropriate or practical for the patient to be registered away from home it will give its reasons for this. There is no right of appeal for the patient against the decision (they may, however, make a complaint through the NHS complaints system as for any other decision). The practice must be able to give reasons as to why registration was declined. Given the limitations of this type of registration, it is not discriminatory to advise a patient is unsuitable for registration on clinical grounds. The practice remains free to offer registration in a usual way, as to any other patient i.e. with duty to provide home visits etc. but is not obliged to do so.
In order to decide the clinical appropriateness and practicality of the individual patient application we may:-
Ask you or the practice you are currently / was registered with (with your consent) questions about your health to help decide whether to register you in this way
Ask you questions about why it is practical for you to attend this practice (for example, how many days during the week you would normally be able to attend)
If accepted, you will attend the practice and receive the full range of services provided as normal at the surgery. If you have an urgent care need and the surgery cannot help you at home we will ask you to call NHS 111 and they will put you in touch with a local service (this may be a face to face appointment with a local healthcare professional or a home visit where necessary).
We may decide however, that it is not in your best interests or practical for you to be registered in this way. In these circumstances we may offer you registration with home visits, for example, if you live just outside the practice area, or we may not register you and advise you should seek to register (or remain registered) with a more local practice.
If accepted but your health needs change we may review your registration to see if it would be more appropriate for you to be registered with a GP practice closer to your home.
This new arrangement only applies to GP practices and patients who live in England. For further information visit the NHS Choices website (www.nhs.uk)
How do I register as an Out of Area Patient?
Please visit the practice and ask one of our reception team that you would like to register as an “out of area patient”, our team will provide you with the necessary paperwork.
St Clement’s Surgery
Village Health,
Churchgate Way
Terrington St Clement
Kings Lynn,
Norfolk
PE34 4LZ
Phone
01553 828475
Fax
01553 827051